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About the CPA (M-L)

The Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) strives to be the revolutionary force at the heart of the Australian working class. It tries to bring to the side of the working class all those who would benefit from an independent socialist Australia.

The CPA (M-L) strives to respectfully listen to and work with Australian First Nations people. They are the people who have suffered most from colonialism, past and present, and are an indispensable ally of the working class in the fight for a society free of oppression and exploitation. We support the view that First Nations people have never ceded sovereignty over their lands.

The CPA (M-L) strives to adhere to the revolutionary essence of the ideology of Marxism-Leninism. The all-pervading influence of capitalism on how we think and what we think means that there is an ever-present danger of watering-down that revolutionary essence. We strive to deepen our understanding of how to apply Marxism to contemporary Australian conditions. Our practical work is the test of our theoretical understandings.

The political strategy of the Party is to implement a revolution by stages. The first stage is to unite all who can be united to win genuine anti-imperialist independence. The seizure of the assets of the imperialists and their local collaborators imparts a predominantly socialist character to this stage, and it can only be won under working class leadership. The deepening of the socialist revolution and its eventual extension to all economic sectors constitutes the second stage. Independence and socialism are mutually dependent and complement and support each other throughout the two stages.

The imperialist power that we seek to overthrow and replace with genuine independence, and the capitalists whom we seek to deprive of their ownership of the means of production, will not willingly surrender to the revolutionary working class. State surveillance and suppression are real threats to a revolutionary organisation. To mitigate these risks our party is organised according to what can be called the ‘iceberg principle’. A few members are seen and open about their membership to allow the organisation to be accessible to the working class, while the majority of the membership remains unknown working appropriately as their workplace, community and personal circumstances allow.

Nature and human labour power are the only sources of wealth and the Party works to protect both from the ravages of capitalism and imperialism.

The Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) was founded on the 15th March 1964, after the original CPA split on the issue of the watering down of Marxism by the Soviet Communist Party and its Australian followers. The CPA (M-L) strives to uphold the revolutionary traditions and continuity of the original Party which dates from 1920. Contemporary Australian Communists are the inheritors of a rich history of struggle and sacrifice that has always sought to serve the interests of Australian workers above all else.